Household Light Makes Global Heat: High Black Carbon Emissions From Kerosene Wick Lamps

Abstract

Kerosene-fueled wick lamps used in millions of developing-country households are a significant but overlooked source of black carbon (BC) emissions. We present new laboratory and field measurements showing that 7–9% of kerosene consumed by widely used simple wick lamps is converted to carbonaceous particulate matter that is nearly pure BC. These high emission factors increase previous BC emission estimates from kerosene by 20-fold, to 270 Gg/year (90% uncertainty bounds: 110, 590 Gg/year). Aerosol climate forcing on atmosphere and snow from this source is estimated at 22 mW/m2 (8, 48 mW/m2), or 7% of BC forcing by all other energy-related sources. Kerosene lamps have affordable alternatives that pose few clear adoption barriers and would provide immediate benefit to user welfare. The net effect on climate is definitively positive forcing as co-emitted organic carbon is low. No other major BC source has such readily available alternatives, definitive climate forcing effects, and co-benefits. Replacement of kerosene-fueled wick lamps deserves strong consideration for programs that target short-lived climate forcers.

Global anthropogenic emissions of particulate matter including black carbon

“…Emission sources that have been recently added, or for which the emission calculation has been refined, include flaring of associated petroleum gas in the oil and gas exploration sectors, kerosene lamps for lighting (further development of estimates originally presented by Lam et al, 2012), diesel generator sets, high-emitting vehicles, international shipping, refuse burning, and brick kilns (see Sect. 3).…”

“…Only after Lam et al (2012) reported very high black carbon emission factors, indicating that this is potentially an important "missing" source, has more work been done to distinguish between kerosene used for cooking and lighting; the new estimates suggest this source might contribute 5-10 % of global BC emissions.…”

“…This modification was driven by the study highlighting the potentially high contribution of kerosene lamps to black carbon emissions (Lam et al, 2012). The emissions depend on what type of lamp is used, and for historical data we dis- tinguish between wick and hurricane lamps, with the former representing the majority (Lam et al, 2012;Mills, 2005).…”

“…These households often rely on fuel-based lighting, with the majority burning kerosene in wick-type lamps (Lam et al, 2012;Mills, 2005); their consumption was estimated at up to 25 billion litres of kerosene per year (Lam et al, 2012). Growing evidence suggests that these light sources pose risks to health (Pokhrel et al, 2010) and the environment (Lam et al, 2012), and improvements to lighting may provide numerous welfare benefits to households .…”

“…Particulate matter emission factors for kerosene lamps used in this work were derived from Lam et al (2012). The PM 2.5 emission factor for kerosene lighting (1.92 g GJ −1 ) is approximately 13 times higher compared to that for kerosene used for cooking (0.15 g GJ −1 ), whereas the OC emission factor for kerosene lighting is roughly one-third of the kerosene stove.…”